Studio Locations

(All color photos taken April 18th, 2002. Click on images to enlarge).

WBUZ-FM was originally located in the WM&A bus passenger terminal at 1510 Southern Ave on the border of SE, DC & Bradbury Heights, MD. It subsequently moved a few miles away to the WM&A bus repair facility at 4421 Southern Ave on the border of SE, DC & Coral Hills, MD. In 1954, it moved again to a new transmitter site on Walker Mill Road in Oakland, MD.

Here's a couple of vintage shots from within the studios in Coral Hills.

Harv Moore

Marv Brooks

On June 28th, 1965, the stations were granted a modification of their licenses to move studios to Bladensburg, MD (outside the city limits of Morningside but were allowed to continue to identify themselves as being in Morningside). New offices & studios were located in the Parkway Building adjacent to the Baltimore Washington Parkway, 5801 Annapolis Road, Landover Heights (adjacent to Bladensburg), occupying the third floor of a multi story office building which opened late in the year. It was once an attractive office complex, highly typical of commercial architecture associated with the era.

Click on thumbnails images below to see enlargements and read details.

Over the years, the town of Cheverly expanded its boundaries, and included the territory once occupied by the Parkway Building. A "For Sale" banner over the building told interested parties to contact the Town of Cheverly should they wish to buy. The town had owned the property, including the building to the rear, for several years. Since the prospects of a buyer became virtually nil, the town decided to raze both buildings and turn the land into a community park.

Good Guy DJ Alexander Goodfellow writes:

I drove by 5801 Annapolis Road during Memorial Day weekend 2004 when I was home in Cheverly visiting my Ma. It's not there, it's been razed!

 

Click on thumbnails images below to see enlargements and read details.

Thanks to Skip McCloskey of the WRC tribute site (who as a teenager won too many contests to mention from WPGC and picked up his prizes in the Parkway Building!) for the demolition photos above.

 

Below are various shots taken in the Bladensburg studios.

Cousin Duffy		Harv Moore	Jim Madison (Joel Denver)
Columbus	Bob Raleigh (Bill Miller)	Bob Wooten, Bob Raleigh (Bill Miller) & ? in February '72	Dino Del Gallo
Jim Elliott	Don O'Day	Jim Elliott	Waylon Richards
Dave Foxx	Jim Elliott	Jim Elliott	Dana Stephens

 

In October 1980 after nearly 15 years in the Parkway Building, the station moved several miles away to state of the art studios high atop the Capital Beltway near the Kenilworth Avenue exit in Greenbelt. WPGC was the first tenant on the top (8th) floor in the first of an eventual three identical office buildings, all of which are still in use today.

 

See the media invitation to new studios - September 1980.

Hear Elliott & Woodside talk about the new studios.

Click on thumbnails images below to see enlargements and read details.

 

6301

Ivy

Lane

Here are some shots from the Newsroom / Production studio

J.

Robert

Howe

 

And one from the control room. The two studios faced each other.

Lisa Kay

On June 18th, 1981 authorization from the FCC was granted to change the transmitting location from 6369 Walker Mill Road to 5526 Walker Mill Road. The change of sites occured on December 21, 1981.

 

The transmitter site is located not far from the Coral Hills studios. The antenna can be seen from Pennsylvania Ave., approaching the Beltway near the DC / PG line.

Marty Sacks writes:

The WPGC transmitter was manned all the way into the '80s. I believe it was the last DC radio station to have transmitter engineers doing regular shifts. You had to have a First Class Radio-Telephone license (so called "First Ticket") to work at that site. It was a huge goal for me in High School to work at one of the TV networks during my summer after high school.

Fortunately for me, I got passed over to be ready for the call from Smitty who hired me to do some fill in. I remember that I ultimately worked four shifts a week - the ones left over when everybody had worked their 40 hours. My job at the end of my shift Sunday night was to bring the time sheets to Bladensburg so they'd be ready for Chris Fisher to do payroll on Monday. She was a really nice lady.

 

Inside the Transmitter Building

(Special thanks to Jeff Loughridge for the transmitter shots above).

 

Transmitter Building & Towers

Click on thumbnails images below to see enlargements and read details.

 

 

The tall tower above is the FM, but the two shorter towers were the array for the AM when it was 10 kW. We replaced the rear tower in 1996 to allow more rental space, but it is still viable as an AM tower. I plan on re-licensing the site as a backup, and will recommission that tower for the array. The front short tower was also part of the WPGC AM array, but is now used for WYCB. I could put WPGC on it in a heartbeat in an emergency, if necessary.

On the transmitters themselves:

Jeff Loughridge: Believe it or not, the original CCA parallel transmitters, from 1969 (mono) and 1972 (stereo) respectively, were running 24/7 until they were retired in 2004 with another parallel system.

Tom McGinley, Chief Engineer of WPGC 1984 - 2000 adds:

Those transmitters are now legends. Smitty was going to replace them in 1983 just before he left. 20 years later they were still kickin' hard!

On the audio chain:

Jeff Loughridge: I think Smitty's air chain included a Burwen noise eliminator, Two Dorrough DAP-610's, and a few other boxes I can't remember. Nothing was stock, and everything was modified by Smitty or Joe Nunemaker, I think. The EMT plate reverb was traded to WAVA for a triple deck cart machine about 1984 or 85.

Tom McGinley: In its last incantation, Smitty's chain consisted of an AGC box at the studio hitting the Moseley STL's, then at the transmitter, a Burwen noise reducer, a Gehron stereo enhancer, the plate reverb, then twin Durrough DAP 610 multiband compressors feeding an Optimod 8100 and finally an MSI composite clipper.

The idea was to build up density and a "wall of sound" with the multiband compression, and added "punch" by tweaking the equalization. Loudness was augmented by the clipper. The stereo enhancer produced a wider "surround sound" stereo image and the noise reducer skimmed off backgroud cart tape hiss and noise. Every box had a defined "raison d'etre" or purpose.

 

After the station moved to Greenbelt, the drive in to DC to pick up the mail became a chore, especially since the neighborhood had deteriorated so much. The address was changed to:

 

The Dial-A-Good-Guy number in the 1960s, a Hyattsville number.

The request / contest line in the Maryland exchange SPruce 9 that served Bladensburg where WPGC's studios were located.

In 1973, all local stations switched over to the special, high volume 432 exchange designed to handle mass calling associated with contests, etc.

 

(202) 432-9742

A special line installed in 1982 for the 'Cash & Gold Sweepstakes' contest.

 

836-0211

A fictious number used in 1982 with the 'E.T. Phone Home' promotion.

 

In 1983 with the AM barely making the book, the request line was changed to reflect the FM frequency.

 

 

Miscellaneous Audio

2/29/04	Ed Walker on: Morningside studio and Duval B. Evans - :50
2/29/04	Ed Walker on: Moving to Coral Hills Facility & WBUZ-FM - 1:07
2/29/04	Ed Walker on: Remote broadcast facilities - 1:05

 

Small Print Dept.: This non-profit historical site is not affiliated in any way with WPGC Radio today or Infinity Broadcasting. Use of copyrighted material is consistent with the "fair use" provisions contained in §107 of the Copyright Act of 1976 due to the following characteristics: Use of copyrighted material is of a nonprofit, educational nature, intended for the sole purposes of research and comment and does not significantly negatively affect "the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work(s)." Use of registered trademark material is not subject to civil action or injunction as outlined in §1114 and §1125 of the Trademark Act of 1946 (the Lanham Act) due to the following characteristics of this work, and the registered marks published herein: Use of reproductions of registered marks is not for the purpose of commerce, nor is the use connected with the sale, offering for sale, or advertising of any goods or services. Use of reproductions is not likely to cause confusion, mistake, or deception as to the affiliation, connection, or association of this work with owners of published registered marks, nor as to the origin, sponsorship, or approval of this work by owners of published registered marks. Wherever possible, the copyright or registered mark owner's name has been noted near the copyrighted work or registered mark; however, all material used in this site, including, but not limited to, newspaper articles, syndicated themes, promos, commercials, photographs, playlists, press releases, ratings, airchecks, newscasts, traffic reports, sports reports, 'sound-offs', sweepers, bumperstickers and station logos, should be considered protected copyrighted material or registered mark with all rights reserved to the owner, named or unnamed. So there!